Dark Hearts

By Valentine and Vixen

Chapter Three: Trap

Author's Note: Hey there. This has been long overdue. Sorry bout that.

Disclaimer: We don't own Final Fantasy VIII and its characters.

Rinoa blinked again, making sure that what she was seeing was not just in her head. She still felt rather shaken from her previous ordeal, and the truth was, she wasn't certain if she was seeing things right anymore. One thing was for sure though, before her lay the most disturbingly beautiful thing she had ever seen. The roses, every single one of them was a haunting black.

Rinoa was void of any thoughts as she looked past the gate in front of her, her chocolate eyes both seeing and doubting the existence of the house and the black field of roses. What was she to expect next? Everything felt just like an elaborate nightmare and their situation was completely surreal. From the crazy old man who was suddenly trying to kill them, to almost being assassinated by their own car.

Assassinated? Had her father secretly paid the vehicle? Maybe this was all part of his scheme to get her to come home…

Rinoa oddly felt like laughing…Great. I'm clearly loosing my sanity.

Selphie and Quistis stepped closer to the raven haired girl, who stood directly in front of the massive iron-gates. Scattered vines snaked up the bars, almost completely covering an L-shaped insignia situated at the center. Selphie figured it was probably the emblem of the family, which owned the house since it was typical for the upper-class society to create for their selves an emblem. In fact her family did the same.

Selphie then turned her attention back to Rinoa who was looking past the vine covered bars, with her eyes plastered over the unsettling view.

"I guess we know why this place is called Black Rose Village, huh?" Rinoa quietly said, half to herself, and half to her friends. The strain of the whole day was starting to take its toll on her and on Quistis and Selphie, who were both mildly shivering under the rain.

"Rinoa, we should get shelter before we all get sick." Quistis said as she blew her warm breath onto her hands. However, that did very little to help her warm up. "This house, we could ask the residents to let us in, at least until the rain stops."

"She's right. Anywhere is better than out here!" Selphie wiped her wet bangs from her eyes. "Let's go!"

Rinoa nodded and watched as Selphie and Quistis struggled to open the gates. Just as she was about to give them a hand she felt something cold nudge against her leg.

Looking down, she saw the dog with her necklace still clamped in its jaws. The dog gave off a strange noise before dropping the necklace onto wet ground. Rinoa slowly bent down in front of the creature and picked her muddy necklace up. Looking tiredly at the dog, she smiled.

"Thank you. For giving this back… and for helping us back there." She smiled weakly and rubbed the dog behind its pointed ears. "So, is this where you live?"

The dog replied with a bark and Rinoa chuckled lightly. Sometimes animals could really take away stress and instantly lift her mood. Silently, Rinoa missed her own furry friend back at home. "You know I have a dog at home too. Her name's Angelo. I bet you two could be really good friends."

I would much rather be friends with you. Seifer snickered in his head.

A loud creak interrupted Rinoa's short, one sided conversation with the large dog and she instantly shifted her eyes to her friends. They had just managed to get the gates to open wide enough for the three of them to get through.

"Whew! That's one heavy gate! They seriously have to get it oiled or something." Selphie said, panting heavily. Her short breaths were barely heard against the steady clash of rain.

"I see you got your ring back, Rinny. I guess that mutt isn't all bad."

Seifer snorted. Who you calling a Mutt, Blondie?

"Yup, Quisty. He's alright." Rinoa said looking down to catch a glimpse of the dog standing next to her. It was strange how the white animal seemed to be glaring at Quistis at the moment. Shaking off her thoughts she took a few steps forward. "Let's get going before that car decides to finish turning us into road kill."

Irvine's eyes snapped open. The feeling that the sun had finally set behind the horizon was evident but something else had woken him from his dreamless sleep.

Irvine felt the beginnings of a smile tug at his lips.

"They got here pretty quick." He smirked, and quickly got off his bed before making his way towards his large window. As his long legs helped him stride easily across his room, a thought crossed his mind. I wonder what they look like…

Irvine leaned against the cold glass of his bedroom window and scanned the field slowly with his far-seeing eyes. There they were, standing unknowingly in front of the already open gate, with Seifer trotting closely behind them. He smiled as he observed the three unsuspecting young women one by one. "Now that's my kind of meal. This is going to be loads of fun…"

The flower field was parted down the middle by a cobble stone path, which began roughly from where the tall gates stood. The pathway sloped upwards and the three women hurriedly started walking towards the massive home.

The stone paved road was quite wide and circled around an empty water fountain in front of the house, before it finally lead towards the stairway of the front doors. On the large fountain was a beautiful stone sculpture of a life size mermaid with long beautiful hair. She was holding a harp in her slender fingers and Selphie looked at the beautiful creature in awe. She seemed as if she was singing and Selphie was almost certain that if she'd listen carefully, she would hear its voice erupt in a wonderful song.

Just then, Selphie's eyes were diverted from the fountain, when she caught movement in one of the rooms on the second floor. She blinked, and looked closely at the dark empty looking room. It didn't take long for her to figure that it was just in her mind and so she brought her attention back to the mansion.

She noticed that it wasn't exactly the largest house she had ever seen. In fact her house was much bigger but this was still massive enough to impress any beholder nonetheless. The mansion was a two-story home, which stretched to quite a length. It had an almost Gothic design, which featured colored bricks, stone, and terracotta forming much of its wall structure. The mansion also looked rather unkempt for vines crawled up in many areas. Large windows covered the mansion walls, yet no light shone through any of them. To Selphie, the house looked empty, just like the rest of Back Rose Village.

As if reading her sister's mind, Quistis spoke out. "I don't think anybody is home…"

"We should at least try and knock. After all, we've already gone through the trouble of walking all the way here. So we might as well try, right?" Rinoa said and strode up the steps. She knocked but when no reply came, she decided to try and see if the house was locked. As soon as her fingers touched the knobs on the twin doors, they swung open. Rinoa quickly brought her had back, her brown eyes shocked. That was so weird… I didn't even turn the knob yet.

Slowly the three of them peered into the darkness of the house, and to their surprise the dog was already inside, sleeping peacefully upon the carpet. The dog's head perked up briefly when it heard them approach before it sauntered away into the shadows of a different room. They hadn't even noticed that it had left their side before and it was a complete mystery to them on how the dog managed to get inside the house before they did. The three of them just assumed that he knew his way around the house and left it at that.

Rinoa entered the room first, but to her dismay it was much too dark to see anything, save for the dark silhouette of the furniture around her. "Hello?" she hesitantly called out into the darkness. "Anyone home?"

Quistis by then had managed to wander off to the other side of the room, where she found a switch on the wall. As her delicate fingers pressed the switch, warm yellow light flooded into the room from a large crystal chandelier on the ceiling of the living room.

The young women looked around them and found that they were surrounded by elegant, Victorian furniture. The design of the room was obviously from classical influence and highly exquisite, with much of the refined furniture made from dark scarlet fabrics and dark wood. The overall design gave the house a more expensive but gothic appeal. Selphie frowned. "Ugh… This place is soo not my type."

Standing in the middle of the large extravagant room, Selphie, Rinoa and Quistis couldn't help but feel apprehensive. There was no one home, but the place was clean and well kept unlike the exterior of the manor. The coldness was beginning to numb and strangely, it was much colder inside than being out in the open. There was also an undeniable thick aura of darkness in the room that none of them bothered to point out.

Quistis decided to light fireplace and the three of them proceeded to sit down on the couch in front of it.

"You know guys… We are pretty rude." Rinoa said nervously out the blue, after the three of them got as comfortable as they could despite their uneasiness. "I mean we are trespassing on some rich family's mansion, in the middle of the woods of a deserted village and relaxing on their couch while using their fireplace."

Selphie half giggled at the mouthful of words that Rinoa had managed to say subconsciously in one breath, as she tried to find a lighter side to their predicament. Sadly that was proving rather hard to do. "Well we can't help it." She sighed. "We got lost and now it's too dark to be on the road. I think we have to stay the night here. We'll just have to apologize when they get home."

"Selphie's right, you know." Quistis yawned and slowly felt her eyes get heavy. It was strange that she suddenly felt lethargic after being wide awake only moments before. But as usual, she reasoned it was only due to fatigue. After all, who wouldn't be as tired as she felt after the long day that they had? "Guys…" She said drowsily. "Lets just get some sleep and leave this strange place first thing in the morning alright?"

It was not long after that, the three girls drifted peacefully off to sleep. Not knowing of the approaching danger which took the form of four handsome men.

Seifer. Zell and Irvine watched calmly from the shadows as the three young women finally dozed off after Irvine had induced their minds to sleep. The three of them were amused with the fact they were such easy prey. With silent footsteps they walked up to where the women slept carelessly and vulnerably on the large couch.

Zell scratched his head, "You brought them here in record time."

"Well they weren't exactly hard to lead. These three are naturally curious anyway." Seifer shrugged.

Although Seifer was pleased with himself for leading them effortlessly and quickly into the mansion, he knew that it was only possible because the trio had complied to be manipulated so easily without even knowing it. Most of the women whom they had taken into the mansion were so apprehensive that it took them a lot of coaxing before they settled with the idea of going into the house. Their lair was oozing with so much darkness and eeriness that would frighten anything and everything away. These three were very brave, clueless, or just plain stupid.

"Where's Squall? They haven't seen the prize we got for ourselves this time." Seifer snorted.

"I'm right here." Squall said as he emerged from the shadows as if on cue. His cold blue eyes rested over the figures laid on the couch.

Irvine smiled as he casually approached the girls, followed by the other three. "You know, they are definitely the best looking batch we've ever had. Right, Squall?" he said and nudged Squall with his elbow.

"Whatever."

Irvine rolled his eyes at Squall's indifference and turned his attention back on the girls. He could see now that they were indeed much more beautiful than he had originally thought and he was thrilled by that concept. But there was something else that intrigued him, something that he couldn't quite point out yet. It was a good thing that he had plenty of time to think that over, now that the girls were trapped. Right now, he had more important things to do. Time to take my pick.

Seifer could see the look Irvine had as he scrutinized each girl one by one. He felt his own instincts take over and he narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Irvine." Seifer called out. "The blonde is mine."

Seifer was looking intensely at him and Irvine frowned. There was a sudden heavy change in the atmosphere and the situation started to get tense. He knew that they were already getting possessive but he never seen Seifer act on it that much in the two hundred years that they had known each other, and he secretly wondered what it was that the Lycan saw in the blonde girl. Irvine's green eyes shifted towards her for a moment and Irvine smiled. Calmly he looked back at Seifer. "Don't worry, man. She's all yours. Besides…" Irvine said and moved over the brunette in the short yellow dress. "…This one is more my type."

Irvine grinned darkly as he reached out to touch Selphie's sleeping innocent face. Just then, a hand grabbed his wrist in a tight grip. Irvine looked up to find Squall's eyes looking harshly at him.

"NO touching. Not yet." Squall's commanding voice said. He then released his grip on Irvine and disappeared back into the shadows.

"Geez! What a grouch!" Irvine said as he looked back at the brunette. Again, he reached over to touch her.

"IRVINE!" Squall's voice boomed inside Irvine's head and quickly Irvine cringed and held his temples, hoping to quell the pain. "Stop doing that Squall!" He internally yelled back.

Seifer didn't have to hear to know what was going on and he smirked. "Serves you right…"

"What did you say, Seifer? For all I know you are gonna cuddle right next to Blondie over there when I leave!" Irvine muttered before storming into the dark. Zell sighed and left as well.

Alone in the room, Seifer smiled. "Hmm…I might just do that." He whispered and quickly took his wolf form before settling himself by Quistis side. It felt strange to sleep comfortably next to someone he knew he could be killing soon but what could he do; he found the scent of her skin relaxing. After all the running he did, couldn't he at least get a reward at the end of the day? With that last thought, he fell asleep.